London Monastery

On May 1, 1913 Mother Mary Teresa Lanphier and ten other Precious Blood Sisters arrived from Toronto to begin our London foundation.  They  first settled in a house provided by the diocese at 451 Ridout Street and St. Michael was chosen as the patron.  Very soon this building became too small and in early 1918 the community moved to a large home at 572 Queens Ave. which had formerly been owned by the Labatt family.   Over the next  years the Sisters undertook , with the help of many friends, the building of a new monastery at 667 Talbot Street.   On July 31, 1923 they moved into this  newly-constructed monastery.  For many years they carried a heavy debt on the building and it was only in the late 1940s, after World War II, that they were able to pay off the last of the construction costs.

The Talbot Street monastery, with its spacious and beautiful grounds was for fifty-four years a haven of peace and quiet where the Sisters could, in the words of Mother Catherine Aurelia, “sanctify the works of their hidden solitude born of longing, prayer and sacrifice and fulfill worthily the aims of their vocation…”  (Sitio).

In 1977, because of the high cost of maintenance, the continuing need for repairs and the loss of privacy and quiet in the neighborhood, the Talbot Street property was sold and a smaller, more efficient monastery was built at 301 Ramsay Road on land donated by the Ursuline Sisters.  During the long period of construction  the Sisters supervising the building of the new monastery lived at Mount St. Joseph.  We remain deeply grateful to both of these communities.

Today the General Superior, other administrative Sisters and the new members of the community who are in formation, reside at the London monastery.  In the name of the Church and the world, the Sisters continue  their life of prayer and sacrifice begun here in 1913.